Monday, December 12, 2016

Internment of German Americans

Image via
mysanantonio.comPhotos show South Texas internment camp during WWII
By Steve Bennett, January 20, 2015

From Wikipedia: "The internment of German Americans refers to the detention of German nationals and German-American citizens in the United States during the periods of World War I and of World War II. During World War II, the legal basis for internment was under Presidential Proclamation 2526, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt under the authority of the Alien and Sedition Acts.[1]

(...) "During WWII, the United States detained at least 11,000 ethnic Germans, overwhelmingly German nationals.[2] The government examined the cases of German nationals individually, and detained relatively few in internment camps run by the Department of Justice, as related to its responsibilities under the Alien and Sedition Acts. To a much lesser extent, some ethnic German US citizens were classified as suspect after due process and also detained. Similarly, a small proportion of Italian nationals and Italian Americans were interned in relation to their total population in the US. The United States had allowed immigrants from both Germany and Italy to become naturalized citizens, which many had done by then." Internment of German Americans - Wikipedia

Related article:

"As was customary after Italy and the US were at war, they were classified as "enemy aliens" and some were detained by the Department of Justice under the Alien and Sedition Act. But in practice, the US applied detention only to Italian nationals, not to US citizens, or long-term US residents.[1] Italian immigrants had been allowed to gain citizenship through the naturalization process during the years before the war, and by 1940 there were millions of US citizens who had been born in Italy. Ethnic Italians were the largest group in the United States among nationals and ethnic descendants of the three peoples represented by the three Axis powers.[citation needed]" Internment of Italian Americans - Wikipedia